Kurt H. Meyer

Submitted by Kurt H. Meyer. Checked by J. B. Conant and W. C. Boyd. 

Professor Meyer was born at Dorpat, Estonia, on September 29, 1883, the elder son of Hans Horst Meyer—who held the chair of experimental pharmacology at the University of Vienna and formulated the modern theory of narcosis known as the Overton-Meyer theory. Two years later, his father became professor at Marburg/Lahn, and it was in this city that Kurt H. Meyer had his early education. The scholarly atmosphere in which he matured, where chemistry and medicine were always very much in the foreground, was to influence him throughout his lifetime. From his father, he inherited his desire for scientific study and research, and from his mother, his taste for the fine arts. His younger brother became a famous heart-surgeon. 

Professor Fritz Haber, Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, no doubt had this in mind when he called Mark to his villa during the summer of 1926. In a visit reminscent of Haber and Schlenk s meeting which brought Mark to the Institute a few years before, Haber outlined Mark s achievements and described a new opportunity for advancement, this time in the chemical industry. The position was as an Assistant Director of Research under Kurt H. Meyer with the giant I.G. Farbenindustrie. 

Figure 3. Professor Kurt H. Meyer in Geneva on July 19, 1951.

The more fundamental aspects of fiber constitution and behavior are dealt with in Astbury s Fundamentals of Fibre Structure 27) and Textile Fibres under the X-Rays 28), Hermans Contributions to the Physics of Cellulose Fibres 39), and Physics and Chemistry of Cellulose Fibres (40 Marsh s Textile Science (40 Preston s Fibre Science 59) and the High Polymers series of monographs, three of which are concerned with natural fibers—Volume IV, Natural and Synthetic High Polymers, by Kurt H. Meyer 53), Volume V, Cellulose and Cellulose Derivatives, edited by Emil Ott 56), and Volume VI, Mechanical Behavior of High Polymers, by Turner Alfrey, Jr. 21 ... 

Bericht uber die wissenschaftlichen Laboratorien der Farbenfabriken (TEA-Beschluss vom 28. Oktober 1926), Ludwigshafen a/Rhein, June 1927. Bayer-Archiv Leverkusen (BAL) 103/17.05.5. The author of this report was Kurt H. Meyer, head of the Central Research Laboratory at BASF, Ludwigshafen. 

Kurt H. Meyer (1883-1952), during 1921-1932 director of research at l.G. Farbenindustrie AG, Ludwigshafen. (Courtesy of BASF Ludwigshafen.)... 

This situation changed substantially when in April 1921, Kurt H. Meyer was appointed leader of the Central Research Laboratory. Although an organic chemist, Meyer was interested in the emerging field of physical chemistry. In the years from 1921 to 1932 he extended the research topics of his laboratory from dyestuffs chemistry into the field of natural and synthetic fibres, plastics, and related intermediates. But for the purpose of this paper, his attitude towards fundamental questions such as the constitution of natural and synthetic polymers, and the mechanisms of catalytic reactions is more significant. Meyer inaugurated a short period of basic research in the Central Research Laboratory. 

H. Hopff, Kurt H. Meyer (1882-1952), Chemische Berichte, 92 (1959), cxxi-cxxxvi. See also the contract of Kurt H. Meyer with BASF, Munich, 29 November 1920. CA BASF W1 Meyer. 

Kurt H. Meyer and Hermann Mark, Der Aujbau der hochpolymeren organischen Naturstoffe (Leipzig Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1930). 

On the recommendation of Dr. Haber, Mark accepted a position in 1927 as assistant director of IG Farbenindustrie in Ludwigshafen am Rhine, where Professor Kurt H. Meyer served as director. In his attempt to elucidate the molecular structure of naturally occurring polymers, Mark was assisted by twenty professional scientists and by such eminent consultants as Drs. Staudinger and Debye. 

Kurt H. Meyer, Ludwigshafen Hermann Staudinger, Freiburg... 

The time then came for Kurt H. Meyer of Geneva to shine in his own light. He presented a paper on Inorganic Substances with Rubberlike Properties. When crystalline sulfur is melted, its viscosity increases dramatically over time and eventually reaches an equilibrium state of very high viscosity. The viscosity changes with temperamre, but is quite stable under anaerobic conditions. The thermodynamic heat of polymerization is positive for Sg, so that it is the entropy of the chain molecule that drives the reaction. This means that the chains have a very large number of conformations in the melt. 

In spite of the difficulties occasioned by the war, the English language translation of the monograph by Kurt H. Meyer appeared in 1942 as Volume IV of the Interscience Series on High Polymers Natural and Synthetic High Polymers A Textbook and Reference Book for Chemists and Biologists [16]. While some books become dated very quickly, especially synoptic surveys of a whole field of work, the monograph by Meyer is stiU an essential reference work Much of the detailed information on specific polymers occurs only here. Textbooks tend to... 

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